Citigroup Inc. (C) and Bank of America
Corp. (BAC) were the reigning champions of finance in 2006 as home
prices peaked, leading the 10 biggest U.S. banks and brokerage
firms to their best year ever with $104 billion of profits.

By 2008, the housing market’s collapse forced those
companies to take more than six times as much, $669 billion, in
emergency loans from the U.S. Federal Reserve. The loans dwarfed
the $160 billion in public bailouts the top 10 got from the U.S.
Treasury, yet until now the full amounts have remained secret.